Royal Revival's All Decade Team

Everyone loves New Year's Resolutions, most people's resolutions focus on personal fitness, self betterment or the improvement of personal relationships. This year though I thought I would go for something a little more tangible, and so I set out to build a time machine. It took me nearly two weeks to complete the device, but I am finally complete and I have one mission in mind: assemble the All Decade team for the Kansas City Royals.

So in my assembly the only thing that would matter is a player's performance in a given year, and since you are never allowed to see yourself while you travel through time, I was allowed only one season per Royal. Otherwise there may have been three Zack Greinkes in the starting rotation. So here's the team that I brought back with me, and let me say that the telephone booth was getting extremely crowded.

The fact that there is only one catcher on my roster speaks volumes about the lack of solid catching seasons that this team has been allowed to experience. I also figured that 2000 Mike Sweeney also, might be able to serve as a backup to Zaun. I could have probably had Buck or Olivo's 2009 season, but these seasons were fresh enough in my mind that I went with a better defensive an on base option in Zaun. As you see in the "Players also Considered" section Stinnett nearly made the cut with an awesome 59 at bat stretch in 2004.

Second base was another tough position because there were three individual seasons that I was trying to decide on. Ultimately I took the defensive prowess and consistency over Callaspo's shaky defense. Even after this Callaspo might have still made the roster had not Esteban German's career year took the spot. As good as Callaspo was with the stick this year his slash line still pales in comparison to German's.

At third base I was forced to decided between several seasons from the joker and Teahen's 2006. I chose the latter because prior to his call up Teahen was a beast and the joker's best season of the decade just couldn't match him. Plus I attended a game during Teahen's power surge in which he homered twice and knocked in five.

Looking at the short stop, all that I can say is I wish Aviles could return to 2008 form in 2010.

Only 4.5 of the 13 hitters on the final roster came from the Dayton Moore era. (Aviles, Butler, DeJesus and a half for German, Grudzielanek, and Teahen)

I strongly considered placing Curtis Leskanic on the roster, but decided against it because he only threw 26 innings in a Royals uniform. I was also somewhat surprised that none of Mike MacDougal's seasons were good enough to make my roster.

Breaking down the pitchers, it is almost a complete reverse as 8 of the final 12 came from the Dayton Moore era. Overall it was tough to find a quality rotation, even though I was looking over the entire decade. Hopefully GM Moore can continue to stockpile the arms and these days can officially be behind us.

It should be noted that 7 of the 25 players that made the final All Decade team are still in the organization. If those seven players could post seasons similar to the years that got them on this roster then 2010 would be a very exciting year for Kansas City baseball.